Innocence
by Tarika Nachtwind
Summary: When Voyager is low on food supplies it comes across a planet inhabited by a peace loving people. But are they willing to trade with our star travelling crew? JC and Jonna.
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer: Don't own anything, except Jonna and this story._

_A/N: Thanks for reading. I just love feedback, so please review!_

"Good morning, Jonna, good morning Captain", Seven greeted her young student and her mother.

"Good morning, auntie Seven!", Jonna exclaimed and then squealed, when her godmother picked her up and kissed her on the forehead, "Ugh, I am too old for that, I have been four for a week, now! Let me down, everybody can see." She struggled to get down. Seven released her, laughing. "Are Miral and Taran here, yet?" Not waiting for an answer she ran into the classroom and enthusiastically greeted her classmates.

"Good morning to you, too, Seven!", said Captain Kathryn Janeway smiling and quickly hugged her former student. Seven had come a long way from the former drone to the now well respected member of her crew. Even though she still was very crisp and efficient while dealing with adults, her three students had grown to love her. In fact, ever since she agreed to take up teaching Voyager's youngest crew members, she showed a part of her character, that nobody had believed she possessed. She was teaching the children with love and great care and even a greater deal of patience. She would gently repeat how to solve a special math problem to Taran, the slowest learner of the three, without ever showing signs of frustration. With the help of the children, she even had learned to laugh.

"Oh, I almost forgot!", the clear voice of Kathryn's daughter reached their ears, seconds later it's owner was back to hug her mother and kiss her goodbye, after carefully making sure that nobody else was watching, of course.

Kathryn was chuckling at what she saw and caught Seven's amused glance, which clearly said: "She truly is her mother's child."

"Have a good day in school, honey. And JJ?"

Her daughter was already halfway in the classroom. She stopped and turned around. "Yes?"

"Please behave."

"But, Mama", was the indignant reply, "I always do!"

"Don't worry, Captain, I will watch her closely." Seven smiled, though her mouth trembled ever so slightly. She wasn't that sure about it, and rightfully so. Ever since Jonna learned how to walk, she escaped her teachers three times a week at least. Kathryn could have sworn that her daughter knew the ship better than her and also the weaknesses of her teachers.

On her strolls, Jonna was known to walk slowly, almost reverently, watching everything and everyone intently with her round and shining sapphire-blue eyes, as if to check up on them. She was always treated with respect, more out of habit, as many had the feeling that the Captain was watching them and not just some small four-year old. The crew later would laugh and joke about this, saying what else to expect from the first born child of the Captain and the First Officer.

Most of the times, Miral, Jonna's best friend and daughter of Lieutenants Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres, would come along. Then they usually were running along the corridors, cheeks rosy and their hair flowing behind them. People were getting used to jump out of the way of the passing whirlwind shaking their heads at the two children.

Their walks would always end on the bridge. If Captain Janeway was there, she would shake her head at the two, call their teacher and then take the fugitives to where they belonged, walking them to their class room in silence as she tried to hide her amusement behind her stern captain's mask.

Most of the time, Captain Janeway would be in her ready room when the children arrived. Jonna and Miral would then run to their daddies, bouncing up and down on their father's knees some seconds later.

Exactly ten minutes after their arrival the Captain would appear (Chakotay was pretty sure that Kathryn knew exactly when the girls appeared on the bridge and deliberately waited some time so that the girls and the bridge crew could have some fun), and chide the adults for keeping the children's teacher worried, as if Seven or anybody else wouldn't be used to it by now, and tell them that children were not supposed to be on the bridge. The fathers as well as the girls would hang their heads, while Kathryn would unsuccessfully try not to smile. She would then accompany the children back to their teacher.

Smiling, Captain Janeway turned and headed towards the bridge. Thinking about today, she barely acknowledged Ensign Harry Kim's enthusiastic "Good morning, Captain!". As she sat down in her chair, Kathryn exchanged a worried look with her husband and Voyager's XO Commander Chakotay. Voyager had run very low on food supplies. Their supply on dilithium wasn't much better. If they didn't found an M-class planet within the next 40 hours, their situation would be very grave.

"Captain!", Harry Kim piped with such excitement that suddenly all eyes of the bridge crew were drawn to him.

"Yes, Mr. Kim?"

Harry swallowed hard due the attention he was receiving and replied with a much calmer voice: "The sensors have picked up a small planet in a system 10 light years away, it is M-class and it seems to be inhabitant by an intelligent race. A space station is orbiting the planet. The atmosphere is strange, though..."

"What is so strange about it, Ensign?"

"Sorry, Captain, I can't really figure out this data, yet."

"Well, keep on it, Mr. Kim. Lieutenant Paris, get us there, warp 7."

"Aye, Captain!" Harry and Tom said in unison.

_TBC..._


	2. Chapter 1

_A/N: Thanks to all those who read and review this story._

"I do understand you, Prime Minister, I assure you, that we wouldn't stay long, just long enough to trade with you. If you and your people don't like us to dock on your station, maybe you could send a small ship and we could meet there, or you could come to Voyager", Captain Janeway's voice was almost pleading.

This planet was her last hope. It was blossoming in agriculture, yet it inhabitants were cultivated enough to built ships with warp-drive and the oddest looking space station Voyager's crew had ever seen. It didn't orbit around the planet, no it was tied to it. It resembled a very tall tower with the actual station as platform. This strange construction was due to the planet's interesting atmosphere. It was fine near the ground, but contained some very aggressive compounds in the higher level making flying or beaming through it impossible. The only weak part of this natural shield was one pole, "north pole", where they had built their tower. How they had managed to do that, was beyond Kathryn's imagination.

As soon as they had been in range, they had contacted the station. Paxaterra's Prime Minister had answered their hail with so much enthusiasm, that even Tuvok appeared to have a thin smile on his lips, but as soon as he had learned that Voyager and her crew carried weapons that could kill, his cheerfulness had turned to ice.

"As I have told you before, Captain, we won't trade with people that kill, that is against our beliefs", the voice of the Prime Minister was still friendly.

"But, Prime Minister, you too travel among the stars. If you don't have any weapons then what do you do when you meet enemies?"

"We do have our ways to scare off enemies. Weapons that talk to your mind, that make you realize your mistakes. They won't kill anybody, nor leave them disabled in any way. Just get out off their range and you won't have any problems. But trading with people that do have killing devices would tempt my people to use violence. That is too high a prize to pay. I am sorry Captain, maybe you find your food somewhere else. I advice you to leave now. You do pose a threat to the peace of our minds."

"Prime Minister, please, I pray, reconsider", Kathryn knew she was close to whining, her patience was running low, "we don't have enough supply to make it to the next system, we..." She turned around, when she heard the doors of the turbo lift open. Who would come, now? Neelix? The doors revealed a little figure with bluish black shining hair and rosy, yet tear-stained cheeks. It was Jonna.

As soon as she had spotted her mother, she ran towards her, desperate to be picked up and hugged. This time it didn't matter who would see. She was a little girl, after all, and just needed to be comforted.

Kathryn, too, forgot everything around her. All she saw was her child who needed her right now. "Hey, honey, what happened?", she asked when Jonna's sobs subsided somewhat.

"There, huh huh, was a... a big hairy monkey, who... who told me I should be in my class. He looked so mean, Mama!", was the girl's whispered reply.

"Shh, when I see him, I tell him not to scare you anymore."

"Okay." Jonna turned around and was captured by the strange appearance of the man on the screen. His skin was dark, different shades of brown blended into each other which looked like it could make him invisible among trees. Above his tiny ears there sprouted two bushels of vividly green hair. The color of his eyes was also green, though it was the dark green of jade filling his eyes with the calmness of forestlakes.

Jonna couldn't take his eyes of him and struggled in her mother's arms to get down. When she was released she made three more steps towards the screen and started addressing the man without any shyness.

"I am Jonna", her big blue eyes were looking at him intently, "and who are you?"

The Prime Minister smiled. "I am K'tstranx."

"Ki-ta-stra-nix?" Her brow was furrowed with concentration.

He nodded and smiled again.

She giggled out of pure joy and then ran towards Chakotay. Jonna hugged his legs and tilted her head to look at him with affection.

"This is my daddy, see K'tstranx!", she exclaimed and beamed as she knew that she had gotten his name right this time. "Are you a daddy, too?"

K'tstranx laughed softly. "Yes, I do have children."

"Where are they? Are they not allowed on the bridge? I am not really allowed to be on the bridge, either, but class was boring. But I did all my schoolwork, honestly. And I missed mama and daddy." Jonna's hand slipped into Chakotay's.

"My children are in school on the planet right now, and I am working at this space station. When they are on holidays, they sometimes visit me, though."

"But don't you miss them?"

The Prime Minister's eyes took on a faraway look and his smile seemed rather sad. He was thinking of the days and sometimes even weeks his duty was keeping him from his family. "Yes, I do miss my children very much. But see, when it gets too much I look at the image of them." He showed her a cube with the holoimages of him, his wife, who spotted two vividly blue sprouts of hair above her ears, and his children, a boy and a girl with flaming red and orange hair. All of them had the characteristic skin and dark green eyes, which seemed to be a trademark of his people.

"Oh, they look nice! Do you think we could be friends? What are their names?"

"I think, they would love to be your friends. Their names are E'ltrki and Mskana."

"El-tre-ki and Mis-ka-na? They are beautiful names, but difficult to speak. Do they have nicknames?"

K'tstranx chuckled. "No, we call them by their names, names are sacred to our people."

Jonna was lost in thought. "Your names are strange for us, hard to speak. Is it difficult for you to speak our names as well? My full name is Jonna Janeway."

"Yes, your names are strange for us, too."

"Oh, then you can call me JJ, it is my nickname, see?" When she heard her mother laugh, she turned around.

Kathryn smiled. "JJ, I think you should get back to your class, now. Seven will be worried."

"Okay, Mama." Jonna was already on her way to the turbo lift, but turned around once more. "Goodbye, K'tstranx"

"It was an honor to meet you, Jonna Janeway." The Prime Minister's voice was warm.

Jonna giggled and the doors of the lift closed behind her.

K'tstranx now addressed Captain Janeway: "I didn't know you had such a beautiful daughter, Captain."

"Thank you, Prime Minister."

"Are there more children on board?"

"Oh, five right now, but two more are on their way." Kathryn smiled again.

K'tstranx hesitated. "Captain, I think I was wrong. We do despise people that kill. But as I understand you come from a far away planet, your culture is so different from ours. I don't wont your little ones get hurt. I guess you need your weapons. And wouldn't we be killers, too, if we allowed your children to starve? ... Ahem, what I wanted to say is, that you are welcome to trade with us. Please dock on our station, dock 1. I'll be there to welcome you, personally. ... Ahem, K'tstranx out."

As the screen went blank the bridge crew looked at each other with mixtures of disbelief, relief, confusion and amusement. Tom was the first one to laugh out loud. "Oh, Captain, I think your daughter is even a better diplomat as you. Hehe, the look on Kitastranix' face, when Jonna addressed him just like that."

To the joy of the crew, Kathryn joined in his laughter. "Next time, somebody is giving us a hard time, I know just whom to call. Maybe now we really wont need any weapons anymore, Jonna disarms just everybody!"

Now everybody, except Tuvok of course, was laughing. Captain Janeway hold up her hand. "Lieutenant Paris, I belief you should get us ready to dock. We don't want to miss out on our opportunity."

"Aye, Captain!", Tom replied but couldn't help asking: "Why was Jonna so upset earlier?"

Kathryn sighed. "She was talking about an ugly ape telling her not to wander around the ship."

Tom giggled. "I bet that was crewmen Thomson, I saw him in his costume this morning when he was going to the holodeck. Mind, he did look quite scary."

Captain Janeway looked slightly mad. "How dare he scare my daughter?"

"You won't punish him now, will you?", asked Tom.

She sighed again. "No, I guess I should rather thank him for sending Jonna here. As it is I think we are quit. But if he ever does it again... Never mind, now take care of my ship, Tom."

TBC...


End file.
